Follow Leverage

Leverage Review: A Father's Love

Running the full emotional gambit - from completely silly to heart wrenchingly sad - "The Radio Job" will go down as one of my favorite episodes of Leverage.

On one end of the emotional spectrum, we had some of the funniest moments this show has offered. How could you not love the nod to Die Hard from Eliot as he was communicating with Special Agent Dennis Powell? The latter was on the verge of being over acted by the always great Michael Paré, but just when I thought it was going over the edge, he reigned it back in.

We also had Parker, Hardison and Eliot's initial break in. If I was Hardison, I would have asked the same thing about why he is always being pushed off of stuff. Was anyone else waiting for Eliot to knock him out after Parker suggested he be unconscious?

The icing on the hilarious cake was Eliot’s running commentary with the last goon he was fighting about being too greedy and not bringing any backup. This is the attitude and scenes that I for which watch this show.

Then we had the emotional side of this episode, as it went in a direction I would never have imagined it would go. While Jimmy Ford has been mentioned many times, we have only met him once before. It's taken more than 18 months, but I got my wish that the writers figured out how to bring Jimmy back again to work with his son.

When Jimmy revealed that he was doing the job to keep Nate safe because Latimer threatened to kill him, I literally sat with my mouth gapping. First, from the fact that Jimmy Ford was capable of putting someone else’s needs first, but also that the laid back Latimer had used that kind of threat.

That was only one of several slack-jaw gapping stares I gave the TV as the one-two punch of Jimmy being blown up in the warehouse was followed by the fact that Victor Dubenich (Saul Rubinek) had been behind the plan to kill the Ford family.

For the third time this season we are getting a blast from the past, given that Victor was Nate and the team's very first take down. It's going to be very interesting to see how Latimer and Victor are connected and what Nate decides to do.

Nate has been content to leave Latimer alone because none of Latimer’s hijinks have affected him or the squad. Now that he will feel that Latimer is involved with the death of his father, Latimer may have wished he had never met Nate Ford. I may be most curious to see how Nate moves forward after learning that his father cared about him enough to sacrifice his life. Nate’s had father issues from the very start.

Of course, it's the goal of any parent to keep their child safe. But it took until this episode for us to buy into Jimmy Ford as that kind of parent. I hope that his last message to Nate helps Nate find closure, though I have a feeling full closure is going to come in the form of bringing Latimer and Victor to their knees next week on the conclusion of this caper.

How do you think Nate is going to react to his father's death? By climbing into a bottle? Climbing out? Murder? Post your thoughts below.

Follow Leverage

sockmonkey•February 09, 2012 18:50

Great episode, as are they all. This show is one of my favorites out there. I loved the doctor who shoutouts, the distinctly whovian music during the time travel scene, although I wish instead of the bow tie joke, or in addition to, somebody would have shouted allons y! That would have been epic.

Kip•January 13, 2012 18:38

@the guy asking if there's anyone that can beat Elliot in a fight. If I recall correctly he never truly beat that African bodyguard from The Scheherazade Job. So he's one guy that has potential to beat Elliot. I loved the reveal. Sure it was from a guy long ago but aside from the warehouse, the moment they mentioned how someone other than Latimer was pulling the strings it got me thinking of all the possible suspects. From Nate's former boss, The Italian Woman, Damian Moreau, hell even Sterling and that was a long shot. I was glad they used someone from the pilot episode. I guess I enjoyed it also because I really remember the pilot episode because it introduced me to the Leverage team in the first place.

Very good. Some ridiculous parts but there was a lot of good parts. The reveal would have been better if I remembered him or Rockford. "Let's go steal a...time machine". Parker riding the whatever. Parker knowing the exact number of patents. Jimmy going back in time in Parker's imagination. Elliot criticizing the bad guy for his greed. 1-3 Dr. Who references. "Bowties are cool". Time machine could be a general reference. 1962 was the year used on Community for the beginning of Inspector Spacetime (an affectionate parody of Dr. Who).

I actually saw the whole Victor thing coming. The warehouse setup gave it away for me. It was toooo similar to how it played out in the pilot. I even think that was the same warehouse they used in the pilot.I REFUSE to believe that ANYBODY, let alone a trained emt/paramedic would be stupid enough to mistake someone pouring a bottle of water on the ground for a pregnant women breaking water. That is BEYOND absurdNormally i dont nit-pick these things. The only time i think its "acceptable" is if something "clearly" goes against someone's established character, or is "obviously" just sloppy writing but this was WAY too hard for me to believe...anyway...I definitely think it was one of if not the best episode of the season. It actually focused on the job, which are my favorite types of episodes, something they have been moving away from lately. But its not really one of my all-time favorite episodesall-in-all 4.25/5

Ella•January 09, 2012 21:49

I think Jimmy didnÂ´t run because he was dizzy and he knew he wouldnÂ´t get out in time. 25 seconds seems as a lots of time but I think the door was very far away for him to get there in time.

NotTheStig -- I totally didn't get the reference! I checked, and Dr. Who stared in 1963, so they almost had another with Parker's choice of 1962...

Tim Mahoney•January 09, 2012 21:00

The water filter patent plays. So will, I suspect, the favor that David Ogden Stiers promised in an earlier episode. We'll need to take down not only Dubenich and Latimer, but that CIA mogul that the Leverage team pissed off earlier in the season. From the teaser blurbs about the finale, we'll see everyone from Chaos to Archie Leach, so there should be lots of fireworks, figuratively and, probably, literally. It hasn't been lost on me that Nate's dad died the way Dubenich had tried to kill Nate and the Leverage team in the series pilot, "The Nigerian Job". With all the possible twists and turns, I hope it's a two hour series finale.

David•January 09, 2012 20:26

woohoo Castle tonight !!lolTo the show. I never even recognized the bad guy that killed pappy. Maybe the actor had some free time but I imagine his time on earth is going to be extremely short lived after Nate gets a hold of him. I imagine Sophie will be the one trying not to get Nate to go to the dark side as it were and I hope he doesn't listen. Dark side is good particularly in the matters of revenge re: murder of a family member.The Die hard references were completely lame and have been done to death so I kinda skipped over that. I wish Elliot would actually get a serious beat down I mean surely there is someone in the world who can fight better than Elliot??What is going on with Hardison and Parker are they a item or what? I can't figure.Pappy had tons of time to get out prolly just a writer way of getting rid of the character. Not too bad an ep some of it was cring worthy, Some parts quite good.

Ahhhh the hitter from The David Job. Thanks, because I was lost on that one too! I look forward to Chaos and Archie though. Both are fun. I wonder how Chaos busted out of the joint this time? I thought the episode was spectacular because it blended the humor and the emotion so well, along with the awesome family dynamic that I love so much. Hardison,Eliot, and Parker breaking in was classic and why I adore the "kids" so much. They really feed off each other well in scenes.Always feel bad for hardison though, they like messing with the kid. Eliot had my full intention with the Die Hard stuff. I just love him. I still don't see where it was necessary for Nate's father to die but it was still a good storyline. Executed well. Right down to the explosion and the team's reaction to it as well.